Call Your House Rep and Demand That They Do Everything They Can to Stop The Push to Impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein

Call your House Rep and demand that he or she does everything they can to stop the push to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein.

Surely you saw or heard tell of the ridiculous hearing that the House Judiciary Committee did with fired FBI agent Peter Strozk on Thursday. Strozk (pronounced ‘Struck’) was the guy who sent thousands of texts back and forth with FBI lawyer Lisa Page while working on investigations into Hillary Clinton’s emails and Russia’s potential interference in the 2016 presidential elections.

Strozk had, and has, a good reputation within the FBI. Conservatives seeking to attack the Trump-Russia investigation fixed on his texts and claimed some of them showed bias against the president. In a show of caution, Mueller removed Strozk from the Russia investigation once he learned about the texts. (This happened around December 2017).

Anyway. We mention the July 12, 2018 Strozk hearing because it happened a day before the Department of Justice announced twelve more indictments in the Trump-Russia probe. These target, by name, Russian hackers who worked for the military and who interfered with the 2016 presidential election.

If you want to refresh yourself on that news, read this Washington Post piece:

The larger point: The timing of the Strozk hearing could have been a desperate attempt to damage Mueller’s investigation before the new indictments went public on July 13, 2018.

We also know that Rosenstein briefed Trump about the coming indictments earlier in the week of July 9, before he departed for the U.K. Trump nevertheless continued to call the investigation “rigged” and a “witch hunt” on the day the news broke.

See a Business Insider piece that confirms that Rosenstein briefed the president about the coming indictments:

So! After all that happened, some House Republicans started making noise about impeaching Rosenstein.

According to a Politico story published that fateful Friday, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows apparently had the impeachment document in hand, on the floor of the chamber, as Rosenstein was giving the press conference about the indictments.

Evidently, a group of House Republicans have been plotting for weeks to impeach Rosenstein. They could file the document as early as Monday, July 16. They could also go with the less serious step of trying to hold Rosenstein in contempt of Congress.

Here’s the larger point: The Politico article says the group doesn’t yet have enough support from fellow House members to take these actions. It also notes that their mutterings make the chamber’s leadership uneasy. See these key paragraphs:

“It is unclear how much support conservatives will have in their effort. Rosenstein has become a punching bag for Trump and his allies as they vent frustration over the Russia investigation. Since Attorney General Jeff Sessions recused himself, Rosenstein has overseen the Mueller probe, which is also examining potential obstruction of justice charges against the president.

But House GOP leaders like Speaker Paul Ryan have clearly been uncomfortable with the notion of going after Rosenstein. It’s unlikely that will change anytime soon, especially so soon after the latest indictments. Ryan’s office was not immediately available for comment.”

We are recommending you call your House Rep anyway and leave a voice mail message.

You can also choose to wait until Monday to call about this, but we at OTYCD wanted to get this post out before then in case those House members move to impeach on Monday.

Now, can these House members succeed in impeaching Rosenstein? Probably not. They would need a House majority to vote in favor.

That’s why you should make calling a priority. A firm pushback from their own constituents should strengthen their resolve.

Scripts follow. Scroll down for more discussion of why impeaching Rosenstein probably won’t happen, and how you can push back against the twerps in the House who are pursuing this clownish nonsense.

“Dear House Rep [Lastname,] I am [Firstname Lastname from town, zip code.] I am calling to ask you to oppose any attempts by your colleagues to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein or hold him in contempt of Congress. Many of the same people who made fools of themselves at the Strozk [pronounced ‘Struck’] hearing on Thursday are trying to hobble Rosenstein. Like Thursday’s hearings, targeting Rosenstein is a politically motivated attempt to undermine Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and Trump’s Russian connections. Nothing more. Mueller and Rosenstein both must be left alone to do their jobs. I am asking you to firmly and publicly rebuke any attempts by this small group of House Republicans to besmirch Rosenstein without cause. Thank you for listening.”

An April 2018 story in USA Today considered the notion that the House might succeed in impeaching Rosenstein, and generally threw cold water on it. The article gives a good overview of what has to happen for the motion to succeed, and explains how rarely such impeachments happen.

While we at OTYCD do not have a full list of the people who are trying to impeach Rosenstein or hold him in contempt of Congress, we’re betting there’s a lot of overlap with the membership of the House Freedom Caucus.

All members of the House of Representatives are up for re-election this year. See this OTYCD article to learn who is in the House Freedom Caucus so you can help vote them out in November: